Review of Snatched (2017) by Dave M — 10 May 2017

The similarities between Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, the stars of the 2017 action comedy "Snatched" (R, 1:30), are fairly obvious, but they took pretty different paths to meeting in this movie. Both women are pretty blondes who have made careers out of making their fans laugh and developed their comedy stylings in sketch comedy TV shows. That's how Hawn started out - in the late 1960s ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"), but she soon moved on to movies, earning an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 1970 and an Oscar nomination in 1981. Her adorable-funny later gave way to her humorous takes on being a mature woman, in movies like "The First Wives Club" (1996) and "The Banger Sisters" (2002) and then... she took a 15-year break from movies. After almost a decade as a stand-up comedian, Schumer hit it big with her own sketch comedy show ("Inside Amy Schumer"), which received multiple Emmy nominations and one win (Outstanding Variety Sketch Series). Schumer also appeared in several TV shows and then brought her crude-funny to the big screen, in a handful of small roles and then by writing and starring in 2015's "Trainwreck", which earned her nominations from the Writers Guild of America (Best Original Screenplay) and from the Golden Globes (for her performance and for the film as a whole). Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn may have made their comedy bones in different ways and they may have over 35 years between them, but let me tell you what else these award-winning funny women have between them - considerable comic chemistry - and one fearlessly funny film.

Emily Middleton (Schumer) is lost - and that's even before she gets kidnapped in Ecuador. In her 30s, she's working in a clothing store - and not doing a very good job. She has a boyfriend (a bearded Randall Park) with whom she doesn't seem in sync - or have much in common with at all. She has a contentious relationship with her family - a mother named Linda (Hawn), a worry wart / homebody who is overly critical - and a brother named Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz) who is a total mama's boy. Oh, and Emily has made plans to take a vacation to Ecuador (to take in some Latin American culture, off the beaten path) - but she has no one to join her. Her boyfriend dumps her and she can't find a friend with any desire for an adventure in Ecuador. Desperate not to waste her extra ticket (and after seeing some pictures of her mom out having fun when she was younger), Emily decides she needs to convince mom to come with.

Emily and Linda get themselves to a fancy resort in Ecuador, but Linda just wants to sit by the pool (more covered up than your average mummy) and Emily (sporting a bikini and quickly getting her drink on) wants to go out and have fun. On the first night of their vacation, Linda stays in their room reading while Emily is picked up by a handsome local named James (Tom Bateman) who takes her out on the town. She gets back to her room safely, but very drunk, and Linda is waiting up to criticize. Still, Emily convinces her mother to join her and James on a day trip to see the countryside. What they see are guns and the inside of a locked room where some kidnappers hold them for ransom. However, the ladies turn out to be pretty tough and resourceful. As they fight to survive and escape, they get help from a mysterious American adventurer (Christopher Meloni), a couple of paranoid but agile American tourists (Wanda Sykes and, in a wordless performance, Joan Cusack) as well as, last but kinda least, Jeffrey, who incessantly and inanely pesters a State Department employee (Bashir Salahuddin) via telephone. But will any of this be enough to save our intrepid adventurers from the clutches of the merciless Morgado (Oscar Jaenada) and his gang of kidnappers or will this mother and daughter have to save themselves?

"Snatched" is one of the funniest comedies of 2017! Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer seem born to play these roles - and to work with each other. Writer Katie Dippold ("Ghostbusters", "The Heat") knows where to find the humor behind some estrogen-fueled action and director Jonathan Levine ("The Night Before", "50/50", "The Wackness") knows how to get the most out of his talented cast. Schumer and Hawn are in top form and the supporting actors know how to bring the funny. The film's combination of odd-couple protagonists, several wacky characters, laugh-out-loud bawdy comedy, great sight gags, darkly comic cartoonish violence, farcical danger and some good old-fashioned mother-daughter bonding makes for a very entertaining time at the movies - and another terrific line on the resumes of two disparate but highly compatible comic actors. "A-".